]]>http://smokey.si/en/2019/06/23/sparglji-s-prsutom-in-posiranim-jajcem/feed/0Beef souphttp://smokey.si/en/2019/02/20/goveja-juha/
http://smokey.si/en/2019/02/20/goveja-juha/#respondWed, 20 Feb 2019 12:10:59 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=1993Beef soup is an absolute Slovenian classic, which every ‘not so young anymore’ generation grew up on every Sunday.

As with any national recipe, there are probably as many versions of the recipe as there are Slovenian families. And this is our recipe for beef soup – a family classic, with a few of my own additions.

Beef ribs are my favourite to use, because the meat is reallt tander and moist, but it has more fat than other cuts. Instead of chicken pieces I sometimes use chicken bones (left after thigh, breast and wing removal) that have been frozen for this purpose.

After the soup is cook, I put some in the frige, with meat, carrots, celery (all the veggies that haven’t fallen apart during cooking), to be used in the next 5 days. I freeze the rest in 1-2 portion cups.

For a long time I would get mad about the fat that gathers on the top of the soup after cooking, because it’s hard to get rid of it. Then I learned the trick of the chefs – take a few kitchen paper towels and put each one on the top of the soup just for a few moments, for the fat to stick to the towel, then quickly remove it. You repeat the process until most of the fat is gone. It really works!

I often put in the soup other vegetables, that I have at home and need to be used – kolhrabi, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli…

For a classic old-school Sunday lunch we eat soup with noodles for a starter, then meat with potates and creamy horseradish. The leftover meat is usually cut cold into thin slices and dresses with onion, oil and vinegar, to make a salad. You can add different vegetables, like sliced red peppers, or leeks, to make it even better.

Beef Soup
For 7 litres of soup.
Cooking: 4 hours.Ingredients

1,5 kg beef meat, usually chunk or brisket (I like beef ribs, because the meat is tender and moist)

2-3 pieces of beef bones

1-2 pieces of chicken or hen meat (you can use chicken soup cube, if you don’t have the meat)

6 big carrot, cut into big pieces

1 small tomato, halved (or 1 spoon of tomato concentrate, if you don’t have a fresh one)

1/4 celery knob, cut into big pieces

1 small onion, cut into quarters

2 cloves of garlic, cut into piesces

1 small green peperrs

15 black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

pinch of grated nutmeg

salt

a bunch of fresh parsley

other vegetables to your liking – kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli… Whatever you have at home and needs to be used.

Method

Put all ingredients, except salt and parsley, into a big pot and add about 7 litres of cold water.

Cook on high heat until it startes to gently boil, then lover the heat to a minimum, so there are only tiny bubbles rising to the surface of the soup. Cook for 3-4 hours, until the meat os really tender. If you leave the soup to boil, it will not be clear.

Add the parsley 5 minutes before end of cooking, then add the salt to your taste and the soup is done. Strain it through the sieve before using it.

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2019/02/20/goveja-juha/feed/0Carrot cakehttp://smokey.si/en/2019/02/06/korenckova-torta/
http://smokey.si/en/2019/02/06/korenckova-torta/#respondWed, 06 Feb 2019 13:37:47 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=1855I had my first carrot cake on my London trip around 5 years ago. I didn’t like it very much because it was too sweet and really didn’t taste of anything else than sugar and cinnamon : D

But this version of the carrot cake is pleasantly refreshing and not too sweet …

Instead of the classic cream spread, I used coconut milk (it should be cooled in the refrigerator at least overnight) and sugar powder.

I prepare coconut cream by inserting a mixer’s paddles and a bowl in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. After the coconut cream is cool enough I take the paddles and a bowl out of the freezer, add in powdered sugar and mix everything up.

I make the pineapple mash by mixing pinneapple compote with stick blender. You can also use unsweetened apple sauce.

In the original recipe, one of the main ingredients is cinnamon. The spice is not a good herb for my stomach, which is why I skip adding it and also some of it can be found in our “pumpkin spice” herb blend mixture for which you can find a recipe here .
If you don’t have problems with cinnamon, you can add an extra two teaspoons of it to the mixture.

The preparation is quite simple and quick. The only thing you have to be patient about is the baking. But it’s so worth it.

What’s your experience with the carrot cake? Have you eaten or baked it already?

Carrot cake

Ingredients

2 cups spelt wholewheat flour

1 cup quick oats

3/4 cup cane sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup pinneapple compote sauce

1 pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3 grated carrots

1 cup plantbased milk

1 can full-fat coconut milk

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp chopped nuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients (except chopped nuts, powdered sugar and coconut cream) witha wooden spatula.

Grease the cake tin and pour in the mixture for carrot cake. Bake for approximately 40min.

When the cake is ready (passed toothpick test) let it cool completely before we put over the coconut cream and nuts.

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2019/02/06/korenckova-torta/feed/0Christmas cookies IVhttp://smokey.si/en/2018/12/22/kikirikijevi-piskoti/
http://smokey.si/en/2018/12/22/kikirikijevi-piskoti/#respondSat, 22 Dec 2018 11:03:51 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=876Best peanut butter cookies around So soft and they simply melt in your mouth. For all peanut butter lovers this is the most delicious treat… I promise!

Božični piškotki I

Ingredients

100g sifted flour

6 tsp peanut butter

2 tbsp butter at room temperature

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

70 g brown sugar

2 tbsp sugar for sugar coating

Method

Mix regular and peanut butter in a medium bowl so it becomes soft and smooth.

Add brown sugar and mix until the sugar incorporates well into butter.

Add egg and vanilla and mix until the mixture becomes creamy.

With your hands shape the mixture into smaller balls, that you roll in sugar.

Place the balls into the baking dish that you lined with parchment paper. Make sure that the balls are slightly apart.

Heat the oven to 180°C and bake for around 12min or until the edges of the cookies become slightly brown and the top of the cookies starts to crack.

Tofu doesn’t have a special taste, so you can use it for salty and sweet dishes, you can mix it in salty or sweet spreads or you can cut it and gently roast, marinate, grill, etc. Once you open the packaging, it is good to transfer the tofu to a container, pour over a very cold (icy) water and store it in the refrigerator.

Tofu is a good source of protein, it only has few calories and contains a lot of iron, calcium and vitamin B1.

Because I don’t eat a lot of meat, I’m always looking for solutions on how to increase my proteins with plantbased food. Because I don’t like to eat the same food over and over again I try to experiment with tofu. The preparation of tofu is always a challenge for me because like I’ve said I really don’t like the taste and it’s texture so much. There was one meal that I’ve prepared with tofu that I did like and it was asparagus pie which unfortunatelly isn’t yet translated into English .

I have to admit that in today’s dish tofu got some extra points. Preparation of tofu nuggets is quick. You can eat them with a dip of your choice. But if you don’t have time to prepare the dip just use a mixture of mayonnaise (vegan) and ketchup instead .

Bon Appetit!

Tofu nuggets

Ingredients for tofu marinade

350 g tofu

2 tbsp olive oil (you can replace one tbsp olive with sesame oil)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 pinch of powdered garlic(omit if it upsests your GERD or replace with chives, shallots or leek o taste)

Ingredients for breading

30 g all-purpose flour

1 tbsp ground flax seed + 3 tbsp water whisked (or one egg)

170 g whole almonds

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp paprika (omit if it upsets your GERD)

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Method

Drain tofu and slice into nugget size blocks. Remove as much excess moisture as you can. li>

Combine all ingredients for the marinade in the container with a lid and let marinate in the fridge at least 30 min (I marinated the tofu for about 3 hours). Every once in a while flip the tofu blocks in the container so that all of the tofu gets exposed to the marinade.

In a food processor coarsley ground the almonds. Mix in the nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and paprika(optional).

Prepare flour in one bowl, flax seed mixture and almond mixture in seperate bowls as well. Add parchment paper to the baking sheet.

Remove the excess marinade from tofu blocks and then one or two at the time coat with flour, then with flax egg replacer adn lastly with your almond mixture. Place tofu on the baking sheet.

Heat your oven to 200°C and bake tofu for about 10 min, flipping half way through, until golden brown.

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2018/10/22/tofu-nuggets/feed/0Hokaido pumpkin souphttp://smokey.si/en/2018/10/21/juha-iz-buce-hokaido/
http://smokey.si/en/2018/10/21/juha-iz-buce-hokaido/#respondSun, 21 Oct 2018 09:08:06 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=1563One of the best soups I’ve had in a while. You should really really try it out!

Bon Apetit!

Hokaido pumpkin soup

Ingredients

3g of grated ginger

1 shallot

1 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 baked hokaido pumpkin seasoned with oregano, thyme and salt

3 dcl vegetable stock

1-2 tbsp spelt meal

2 tbsp coconut milk + 1 tbsp for decoration

some pumpkin seeds and chives for decoration

1 bay leaf

Method

Saute chopped shallot and ginger on a little oil. Pour in the soup. Season with bay leaf. li>

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2018/10/21/juha-iz-buce-hokaido/feed/0Buckwheat curryhttp://smokey.si/en/2018/10/17/curry-iz-ajdove-kase/
http://smokey.si/en/2018/10/17/curry-iz-ajdove-kase/#respondWed, 17 Oct 2018 09:01:30 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=1565In Slovenia, we usually prepare buckwheat with mushrooms. I have had my first buckwheat late in my life. My mother in law made it for me for the first time and it was love at first bite.

Ajda is a plant that is recommended for better blood circulation and helps fight against cancer, but it is also among the most nutritious rich plants. The plant originated from central Asia and even Siberia, and in the late middle ages it was brought to Europe.

We use mainly its seeds, from which with peeling we make buckwheat and with grinding buckwheat flour. Buckwehat can be enjoyed in many forms, it can be cooked or baked. Because it does not belong to cereals (botanically, it belongs to grasses) and does not contain gluten, it is also suitable for people suffering from celiac disease. Buckwheat and its dishes raise the level of energy. Its aroma attracts even bees so they make a special honey with strong taste and dark color from buckwheat.

Today’s dish is in my opinion a phenomenal approach to preparing buckwheat and I think that this is a very original and fresh concept of preparing buckwheat. If you are a curry lover you will definitely love this dish.

Bon Appetit!

Buckwheat curry

Ingredients

smaller piece of leek

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup of buckwheat

125g of chopped chestnut mushrooms or similar

1/2 middle sized chopped and peeled butternutsquash pumpkin

1/3 can coconut milk

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dry thyme

3 piches of curry powder

2 pinches of curcumin

2-3g chopped fresh ginger

juice of 1/4 lime

1/2 tbsp tomato puree

salt, pepper, fresh parsley

Method

Coat the pumpkin with oil and thyme and bake at 180 ° C for approx. 30 min. or until soft. li>

When the pumpkin is roasted we can mash it and mix with 3 tbsp of coconut milk. Save the rest of the milk for later. Li>

Cook buckwheat in a slightly salted water about 10 minutes or until al dente. li>

In the meantime saute leeks in the olive oil. Add mushrooms and sprinkle with salt and saute for about 5 minutes on lower heat. li>

When the buckwheat is cooked, we strain and add it to the mushrooms. Then add in the mashed pumpkin fand around 3 dcl of water and cook for 5 min. li>

Saute the coriander seeds and cumin in the oil until it starts to smell and add the mixture to the buckwheat. li>

Finally, add the rest of the coconut milk and tomato puree and cook for an extra 5 minutes. li>

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2018/10/17/curry-iz-ajdove-kase/feed/0Stuffed pasta with spinach and ricottahttp://smokey.si/en/2018/09/19/polnjene-testenine/
http://smokey.si/en/2018/09/19/polnjene-testenine/#respondWed, 19 Sep 2018 06:41:33 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=1359Viva Italia!!! Italy is always so inspiring to me, and I’m so lucky to be living so close by this wonderful country. Those simple Italian dishes that are phenomenally good, a beautiful landscape, an interesting language that I’ve been learning for a month now… So so thankful for all those great things.

So like I’ve said a few weeks ago, I started learning the Italian language. I’m helping myself with Youtube tutorials, learning the Italian language in 30 days with Dolce Vita . And in October I’ll start taking a course. I can hardly wait. If that goes well after a year of learning Italian I will start learning Spanish which I also love.

Since we didn’t eat pasta on our last short trip to Tuscany, we had to have them immediately upon arrival home. Yeeees, I’m obsessed with pasta, I admit it!

After a long search on our way home, we finally found a good substitute for the “Conchiglioni rigati”. Conchiglioni are shaped as large shells but since we couldn’t found the conchiglioni we replaced them with pasta shaped as large snails :D. We wanted the mentioned shape because we wanted to fill them with a homemade ricotta for which recipe you can find HERE . We also added ricotta, mozzarella, spinach and egg with some spices.

Method

Ingredients

8 Lumaconi pasta pieces + some extra because they tend to break during cooking

3/4 tbsp olive oil

2 cups roughly chopped spinach leaves

180g ricotta (we used homemade)

1/2 cups mozzarella

1 egg

few fresh roughly chopped basil leaves

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3/4 cup marinara sauce

Method

Cook pasta until al dente. Add to a strainer and set aside.

In a bigger pot heat olive oil. Add spinach and stir occasionally until the leaves start to brown but stop while it iy still green, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Pour half of the marinara sauce in a medium-sized baking dish

In medium bowl mix spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, egg, basil, salt and pepper. Stuff your pasta with a generous amount of filling and place them in a baking dish you’ve prepeared in a previous step.

Cover the baking dish with the remaining sauce and aluminum foil. Bake for 25 minutes at 190 ° C. Remove the foil and continue with the baking until the top begins to brown, about 10-15 minutes.

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2018/09/19/polnjene-testenine/feed/0Ricotta gnocchihttp://smokey.si/en/2018/09/17/njoki-z-rikoto/
http://smokey.si/en/2018/09/17/njoki-z-rikoto/#respondMon, 17 Sep 2018 10:21:22 +0000http://smokey.si/en/?p=1504When I was a kid, making pasta at home, including gnocchi, was completely normal. But with selection of foods at stores getting bigger and life rhythm getting faster, it all got lost.

Nowdays only a rare few make homemade pasta and that’s the reason we forgot how easy it really is and how healty and delicious homemade pasta is. No preservatives, artificial colors, made with homely and organic ingredients… But most of all simple and quick to make and it tastes amazing.

Today we made homemade gnocchi with homemade ricotta, that go wonderfully with a tomato and basil sauce. We used organic flour and eggs from the local farm and organic microfiltrated milk from Hofer, so they were made with the best, organic ingredients.

We didn’t have any ricotta, so we started with a liter of milk we took from the fridge and an hour later I was already putting the gnocchi in boiling water – for all of you who still doubt making gnocchi is fast and easy. If we had a premade ricotta ali used a store bought ricotta, we would have cooked gnocchi on our plates in 10 minutes.

You just put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix into a soft wet dough then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it for 3-5 minutes. If it’s really sticking to your hands, you add a little flour as you knead.

You can wrap the dough at this stage and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour (you can actually make it hours in advance or use it straight away). You then divide the dough into 4 pieces, shape them into sausages and lightly flour them. You cut every sausage into smaller pieces to get gnocchi. Generously flour the gnocchi to prevent them from sticking together. If you like, you can press the gnocchi from the top with a fork to form little grooves, which will help hold even more sauce and with that more taste.

You actually spend the most time on making the sauce and during that time the dough can rest in the fridge. When the sauce is ready, you cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes and then transfer them into the sauce with a slotted spoon. Lightly mix the gnocchi, put them on the plate, grate over some Parmesan cheese and you have a really tasty meal to treat yourself and your guests with.

Then divide the dough into 4 pieces and shape them into a long, thin sausages.

Flour the dough sausages and cut them into small pieces with a knife. Sausage thickness and gnocchi size is completely up to your likeness. We usually make sausages about 2 cm thick and then cut them into 1,5 cm pieces. This gives us a bite size gnocchi. But sometimes we make them bigger or smaller, depending on the sauce we’re using.

Generously flour the gnocchi to prevent them from sticking together and then cook them in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to take them out of the water and transfer them directly into the sauce. They are wonderful with a simple tomate sauce with herbs and some grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Gnocchi can easily be frozen and used later. Make sure they are well floured and put them in the freezer in a single layer. When they are fully frozen, you can transfer them into a bag or a container. Just cook them for about a minute longer if they are frozen.

Bon appetit!

Photography: Twofoodiesandacat – Fotografiranje in Stiliranje hrane

Smokey Darja & Rok

Recipe: Jamie Oliver

]]>http://smokey.si/en/2018/09/17/njoki-z-rikoto/feed/0Mango coconut moussehttp://smokey.si/en/2018/08/21/mango-mousse-s-kokosom/
http://smokey.si/en/2018/08/21/mango-mousse-s-kokosom/#respondTue, 21 Aug 2018 15:09:13 +0000http://smokey.si/?p=1398According to the weather forecasts, last summer days are in front of us. So so sad, because I feel like this summer hasn’t even started yet. It was rainy almost every daythis summer with frequent storms and hail. By all means, these weather conditions reminds us of how we take nature for granted. We should respect and appreciate it more, don’t you think?

Today, I’ve decided to make a very simple dessert, which you can start preparing early in the morning. In the afternoon, after lunch, it’s already readyfor you to try it. This mango mousse is not overly sweet, at least ours wasn’t. It may also depend on what mango you use. If your mousse is very sweet, I’m sure it will be because of mango.

It is important to note that prior to using coconut milk you must store it for at least one day in the refrigerator. It’s not a biggy if the milk is stored in the refrigerytor for a longer period of time. After a while milk becomes very hard and you need to be careful when mixing it so that you do not end up with it all over the kitchen, as has already happened to me :D. I use Hofer’s coconut milk(see figure below).

Lot of joy preparing this mousse, and let this refreshing dessert be such a success as it was at our house. Let me remind you that mousse is also suitable for anyone who doesn’t tolerate dairy products.

Priprava testenin

Ingredients

1 larger chopped mango

1 can of coconut milk(only the hard part)

2 tbsp maple syrup

a handful of coconut flour

Methd

Mash mango and maple syrup with immersion blender of your choice.

Mix coconut milk with your mixer. After it’s ready, add mango mixture and stir well. You can also use your mixer at this point.

Let it rest in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Pan fry your cocnut flour for about a minute. Be careful not to overburn it.

After the mousse is ready, decorate it with a looot of coconut flour and some chopped mango.